Sunday, April 5, 2015

Man Up, Republicans!

Perhaps my wife's dearest mentor as a child was a neighbor who had
spent part of his life in politics.One of the favorite expressions that he shared frequently with her was
that 'politicians can smell a vote a mile away." This summarizes what this
entire business of why all these goofy politicians have spent so much time and
effort on anti-gay legislation that flies in the face of constitutional principles
as well as just plain common sense.

Let me digress a moment so that my point can be placed in an
appropriate context.A short video
interview of a florist in Georgia by a Huffington Post reporter is currently
posted on its website. That florist is adamant that she would not provide services
to gay couples for the purpose of having flowers present at a wedding ceremony.
She relies on the Bible and her well-honed religious beliefs that she cannot
condone such sinfulness by others. That would be wrong, she says. In the next
breath, she freely admits that she would willingly provide all of her services
to adulterers. The last time I checked the Ten Commandments which do appear in
the Bible, there is nothing in those commandments preventing LGBT marriages, but
it is pretty clear that "Thou
shalt not commit adultery" is front and center. The definition, by the
way, of what constituted adultery early on permitted a married man to have sex
with his slaves and single women, but not another man's wife.

Now, connecting
the dots, it is crystal clear that most of the anti-gay crap is hypocritical in
the extreme, particularly when another one of the Commandments states,
"Love thy neighbor as thyself." (I guess having sex with slaves and
single women came under a hybrid version of 'loving thy neighbor'.) What is also
clear is that those who are fervently opposed to any type of same sex
relationships will vote for any politician who (apparently at least through the
Republican primary season) shares the same beliefs. One of the quirks of the
selection of the Republican presidential candidate is the need to run through
the gauntlet of a series of primaries in which the majority of actual voters
are fundamental Christians opposed to same sex anything. Politicians 'smelling
votes' will say anything that appeals to this group. I submit that what is
needed is a Republican candidate who has the guts to 'man up' and say that such
discrimination against gay and lesbian people is wrong. This position should be stated
during the primary season, not after the nomination has been nailed down and
the winner finds himself in a general election. The majority of Americans are
smart enough to spot phony hypocrisy when they see it, so when the flip-flopping
on the issue occurs after the primary season is over, it will cost the Republican
candidate for president dearly. No
amount of Koch brothers or Adelman's money will offset the problem.